How a “National Emergency” Brings Out the Inner-Totalitarian in Some People

Last night at a local restaurant a man sat next to us and said that he and his wife had just been kicked out of another restaurant (Lemongrass in Delray Beach, FL) after she temporarily choked on some of their food.  The manager apparently freaked out, thinking she was coughing, not choking, and spreading the corona cold virus, and kicked them out of her restaurant. (Crappy Asian food; I don’t recommend it if you’re ever in Delray Beach).

Then this morning at a grocery store a man standing next to me was complaining about the absence of hand sanitizer (due mostly to the state’s price control laws).  He announced:  “The government should force those corporations to make more of that stuff.”  For what it’s worth I told him that I didn’t think it was necessary for government to force corporations to try to make more profits.

A friend tells me that the mayor and city council have been bombarded with emails from local citizens demanding that they shut down all the businesses in town.  So far, our mayor is not behaving quite as idiotically as most others in South Florida in this regard.

Share

12:25 pm on March 18, 2020